work of the League was carried on in such an unostentatious manner that very few people knew of its existence except the members.
It has a safe and significant sound—the A. P. L. at
Anchorage. Not a large place, indeed, but there were seven
cases of alien enemy activity, twenty-eight of disloyalty and
sedition, five of anti-military activities and thirty-two of
propaganda, beside two I. W. W. investigations. Anchorage
seems to have been uncertain whether to work or fight in
some instances; 206 cases came up of this sort. In addition
to these, 143 draft cases came before the local boards, as
well as 62 slacker cases. Twenty-two cases under the head
of liquor, vice and prostitution were disposed of. The Food
Administration had only four cases. It is gratifying to note
that every head and sub-head of the report is filled out conscientiously
and carefully.
We may now cease the reading of further reports from the four points of the compass in America, and rest with this one from Anchorage, submitting once more the conviction that these many varying reports, covering multifold lines of investigation, make the best and truest reflex of America ever gotten together in printed form. The reading and summarizing of the reports made an extraordinary experience, such as can hardly have come to many individuals, probably to none outside of the Department of Justice; and it is not known whether a similar enterprise ever has been undertaken even in that great office. By no means is it to be supposed that all the reports sent in have been mentioned in these pages—only a small fraction have had even the briefest mention. Many hundreds remain unnamed in public as do hundreds of thousands of men who made them up, not asking recognition for their work. It would be cheap to thank such men, or to apologize to them. In A. P. L., each of us has done the best he knew. For that, there is higher and better approval than that of any printed page.
